Future Identity of America

Are black people that different than white people? This is both a question and concern society focuses much attention on today, is there cultural assimilation in the United States or does the country still remain segregated? Realistically, America has a long way to come before saying it fully integrates both races equally. Donnell Alexander, author of “Cool Like Me” approaches the topic of the prejudices whites have of blacks, arguing that there exists no cultural integration and the United States is still separated. With many lucid examples using expressive tones and personal examples, he compares the coolness of himself to the coolness of other blacks and other cultures in order to get the reader to identify “cool” and relate it as a black quality and observe it in American culture as a style and a way of thinking.

Race issues in the world today are inescapable and are brought into every conflict, because the root cause of problems today are still traced back to race. By starting out his essay talking about how “cool” he is and how that benefits him, Alexander is showing through the use of his examples of different people that in society there are many people of diverse races and cultures (Alexander 415). There are countless unique individuals living together, but yet they still are not blended in a culture so big it would seem inevitable. This is a result of the media, which additionally confirms that society is a long way from becoming integrated due to the differences in ways of life of all cultures as opposed to conformity amongst one (Alexander 416). Alexander justifies that white people can set other race's culture behind theirs, take what they want from it, without fully incorporating themselves together with the othe...

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... will keep going until some change takes place. Here, however, the author provides an illustration in his ironic essay for his coolness in the face of ignorance, oppression, terror, outlining the major downfalls in this struggle. Comparing the coolness of himself to other blacks and whites, Alexander successfully shows how lacking America still stands to move towards racial equality. Alexander feels integration has not taken place, rather whites and blacks live together having their own separate cultures and whites absorb desirable aspects of black culture and leave the rest. That is far from integration, and due to his research on this topic, Alexander feels “yes, blacks are cooler than whites.” (Alexander ???)

Works Cited

Alexander, Donnell. “Cool Like Me”. Seeing&Writing 4.Donald McQuade/Christine McQuade. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2010. 415-421. Print.